The Founding Docs of the U.S. Government - Essay Example

Full Giving Rights The Constitution of the United s has been established by the Founding Fathers based on the fundamental principles observable in life. The statement, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” expresses in general the basis of the Constitution. The First Amendment in particular defines the freedoms of speech, religion, press, assembly and petition.

From it, other amendments and specific rights branched out. For instance, it is the right of the people to have the leaders they want and exercise their rights to choose these leaders through elections when they are of legal age, regardless of their color, status and gender. For this reason, the American experiment, or the experiment of representative republican governance, has been established for the nation, being called this way because the United States has long been under the leadership of Great Britain as a group of colonies.

As it is even today, Great Britain had a monarchial form of government that the Founding Fathers did not like. In the Constitution that they drafted, they expressed their desire to have a ruler who is not put into power because of his/her familial ties but because a person has the ability to rule the people. However, because of the long dependence of the colonies on the British government, many states were reluctant to accept the idea of independence. When Thomas Paine published his pamphlet Common Sense, the other states courageously embraced the idea because of the bravery of one man who publicly expressed and explained in detail the ideas of independence.

Apart from the First Amendment, there have been other amendments that particularly address life and liberty. For instance, the Fourth Amendment prohibits searches, arrests and seizures of property without probable cause. The Fifth Amendment gives an accused the popularly called Miranda Rights. The Sixth Amendment provides a speedy trial; the Third Amendment protects private homeowners from the use of their homes as military quarters during a time of peace. Other amendments protect the rights so that they can live safely.

The first ten amendments of the Bill of Rights specify the extent of liberty that citizens must enjoy under the constitution. However, this has not been seen to be true in the lives of African-Americans. Many of them remained to be slaves and have been denied their rights to pursue happiness and liberty. In fact, some of the Founders were slave owners, which is ironic because they were not ready to give the same freedom to their slaves that they demanded from the British government. Eventually, the Fourteenth Amendment made clearer the definitions of the first ten amendments, accepting people of other colors or races as American citizens, as well as their rights mentioned in the Bill of Rights.

Sticking to the ideals of the Founding Fathers, believing that all men were created equal, the Bill of Rights gave all American citizens the freedom to exercise their inalienable rights. In addition, the lives of the citizens were protected by the Bill of Rights through the maintenance of peace and protection of their lives and property.